


All In One Big Moment (Light on the Horizon)

by ohmygoshwhatascream



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Spoilers, another pile of trash written by me, gotta dirty up the panzeke tag with my garbage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-20
Packaged: 2020-09-19 06:04:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20326321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmygoshwhatascream/pseuds/ohmygoshwhatascream
Summary: In a flash, ten years passes by.





	All In One Big Moment (Light on the Horizon)

**Author's Note:**

> The world needs more panzeke angst and you bet your ass I’m gonna dominate this dead ship with my trash garbage ideas

She counts her steps. _One, two, three. Left, right, left._ It takes all her effort, all her willpower, to keep going.

_Keep counting. You’ve got to keep going. You can’t stop now._

The forest around her seems to grow darker. The canopies of trees thicken fast over waned sunlight and their branches grow fat and tangled far above. Shadows fall down in light’s stead, gloom deep and endless and unforgiving.

Roots twist and turn, clumps of fishermen’s nets that trap and tangle her feet.

_Don’t fall. You can’t fall. Just keep going. You can’t stop now._

Zeke isn’t as heavy as she thought. But maybe that’s just her adrenaline talking. She doesn’t want to him to die. She doesn’t want to lose her memories. She has to keep moving. Find help. Find something, _anything_, that might be able to save his life. So maybe he is heavy, maybe she just can’t afford to care.

_You have to keep going._

The grass feels sharp against her knees. It scratches and bites, rough and uncomfortable on her skin.

She closes her eyes.

_You can do this. You can’t stop now._

Zeke’s laboured breathing is the only sound she can hear. It’s ragged and broken, inhales choked and exhales spluttering. He sounds like he’s dying. Like there’s barely any life left in him.

She swears she can see the life leave him. Each heaved breath pulls out the spark in his eyes and the warmth of his hands.

“Zeke…” She whispers, teeth clenched so tight she fears her jaw might crack in two. “Zeke, just… h-hold on.”

He doesn’t answer. She doesn’t know if he can. But there’s a skip in his breathing, a jump where his breath catches in his throat.

His fingers twitch, trying to curl around her own hands. He can’t get the hold right though, his grip isn’t strong enough. He’s not strong enough.

He can’t go on like this for much longer.

Pandoria looks ahead, towards the horizon. Light glows bright from beneath a clearing in the trees. Hope blossoms in her chest.

_Light at the end of the tunnel. You can’t stop now._

She breathes in. One foot in front of the other. The light grows bigger, grows closer. They can escape. They can get help. They don’t have to die.

They can _live_.

She speeds up, legs so sore and tired and body heavy like lead. But the light… she _has_ to get there!

_Go. Run. You can do it. You can’t stop now._

Her legs give way and she wonders if this is just a last bit of bad luck. If things are really going to end like this.

Her knees slam against the ground. They’ll be covered in scrapes and scratches now, she can already feel her skin sting hot.

Not that it matters. They’ll heal. They always do.

She’s a Blade. She’s not going to die. She’s just going to return to her core crystal. Do what they all do. Reset their lives and live again. As though they never really existed before, as though there are no memories to remember and no people they have forgotten.

Maybe she’ll be awakened by someone nice. Someone who will treat her like their equal, not their subordinate, not their _slave_. Maybe they won’t make her do awful things and make her a person she doesn’t want to be.

But maybe they will.

She thinks of bandits’ blades. The ones who kill mercilessly. The ones who follow orders and do whatever their Driver asks of them. The ones who don’t know their true worth. Who believe that Blades are tools, a means to an end with no thoughts or feelings of their own.

_What happens if she becomes like that?_

Over a decade of memories trickles through her head, in front of her eyes. In snippets, she sees it all.

The biting winds of Tantal. The snow family her and Zeke had built. Eulogimenos, face disappointed. Eulogimenos, angry. Eulogimenos, furious, and then memories of Tantal stop altogether.

She sees the aurora in Leftheria, high above the glowing Titans and cold Cloud Sea. She sees the stars and their constellations she can trace in the sky. Uraya’s saffronia trees burn bright and bold before her, sky laced with fired petals and sparkling rain.

She sees Zeke, watches him fall out of a tree in Gormott. She watches him have decades worth of bad luck that never seems to end. She watches him grow and change and sees the life they had together, all in one blink – in one moment.

_Is this what dying is like?_

The memories fall away from her. She tries to catch them, but they slip through her fingers like running water.

She collapses, Zeke’s body heavy on top of her.

She holds his hand tight. There’s still life left within him. She wants to tell him everything. What he means to her, how much she doesn’t want to forget.

But time doesn’t stop for them and the words never come out.

She feels his hand go from warm to lukewarm to cold. She feels her time with Zeke fall away until there remains nothing left to remember.

She looks to the horizon, the golden light.

Black shadows stand tall in front. The light falls from her face and the shadows move closer.

Ten years of memories.  
Reset.

**Author's Note:**

> me? Writing angst? Huh, who would have guessed?


End file.
